The present invention relates to the detection of water in oil. The online production of crude oil requires the detection of water content in the oil on an online basis. The water is typically present in very minute or trace quantities and its detection is difficult to accurately measure, particularly in an online context.
The detection of volatiles such as water in oil is attempted in the prior art by causing the volatile to evaporate to the gas phase. The transfer of volatile substances like water from a fluid mixture to a gas phase for detection involves many parameters that affect the efficiency of transfer and can thus alter the concentration of the volatile in the gas phase which in turn can vary the accuracy of any measurement of the volatile based upon the detection of the vapor phase concentration as a measure of volatile in the oil.